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Casual gaming site? / THU 8-13-26 / "Gold" of the 21st century / Query for Claude, e.g. / Verbalized shivers / A.I. that has been trained with massive amounts of text, in brief / Cough drop brand whose name is yodeled in its commercials / Epitome of a hot place / Kind of bean used in Egyptian falafel
Thursday, August 13, 2026
Constructor: Killian Olson
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
 |
| [35A: "Light" weapon] |
Theme answers:
- LOBSTERS (from "Mobsters") (17A: Mafia members, e.g.) (M to L)
- ESPOUSES (from "Ex-spouses") (26A: Alimony recipients, say) (XS to S)
- AXLES (from "Ales") (41A: Drinks at a pub) (L to XL)
- AQUARIUM (from "Aquarius") (53A: 11th of a noted 12) (S to M)
A large language model (LLM) is an AI model (typically a neural network) trained on a vast amount of text for natural language processing tasks, especially language generation. LLMs can typically generate, summarize, translate, and analyze text in many contexts, and are a foundational technology behind modern chatbots. Biased or inaccurate training data can make an LLM's output less reliable.LLMs are typically based on transformer architecture. Generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs) are a type of LLM that is pre-trained to predict the next word. GPTs are then often fine-tuned to follow instructions and to behave as assistants.
Benchmark evaluations for LLMs attempt to measure model reasoning, factual accuracy, alignment, and safety. (wikipedia)
• • •
Back to the theme—it was tricky for many reasons. The answers are "wrong" for their clues, so you have to figure out why, great, this happens not infrequently on Thursdays. But today, even after I saw the "gimmick" (LOBSTERS is obv. a one-letter change of MOBSTERS), I did not see it at all. This is because that letter change in LOBSTERS/MOBSTERS involves consecutive letters, so I figured we were just dropping the letter down one place in the alphabet. That is, I didn't see Medium changed to Large, I saw the letter "M" dropped back one space in the alphabet to the letter "L." Things didn't exactly get clearer with the other themers. I got AXLES and wondered why we were now adding a letter instead of changing a letter. The puzzle now seemed to have two different conceits. What the hell? And ESPOUSES also looked like an add-a-letter situation, since I thought the base answer was just "spouses" (26A: Alimony recipients, say). Even after I got SIZING UP and figured out why most of the changes were happening, I was stuck on ESPOUSES. I still thought we were changing "spouses," so "S" appeared to have been changed to "ES," and I was like "ES!?!?! That is not how you write "extra small" ... also ... wait, Small to Extra Small would be sizing down, not sizing up ..." Finally dawned on me that the base answer was EX-SPOUSES, not just "spouses." Let's just say XS is not a size I think about often, and definitely not in the standard size range (SML + XL). So even though the themers were easy enough to get, completely grasping the theme took some time.
Bullets:
- 8A: One who's definitely not being invited to the party (PARIAH) — another example of cluing being "????" Like, I wanted there to be wordplay, like maybe "party" was being used in a political way, something like that. But instead it's just ... literal. Yeah, I guess you would not invite a social outcast to your party. "Hey, you know who we're definitely not inviting to this party? Hitler." The answer seems too extreme or contextually wrong for the clue. Looked at another way, there's something sort of snotty and snobby and mean-girls (or boys) exclusionary about the way this clue is phrased. Clue could be shorter and clearer and better.
- 25D: "Gold" of the 21st century (DATA) — ugh, shut up. The big tech boosterism here is barfsome.
- 49A: Collect over and over, as resources in a video game (FARM) — we get it, you're on the computer a lot, yeesh. Give it a rest.
- 55D: Allow to post on a forum again, e.g. (UNBAN) — they finally UNBANned me from QUORA after I agreed to stop answering user questions with Yeti conspiracy theories (54D: Website that describes itself as "a place to share knowledge and better understand the world").
- 8D: Query for Claude, e.g. (PROMPT) — in the future, there will be no writers. Just PROMPTers. (In case you've been living under a rock, the "Claude" here is one of the better known LLMs (or "series of LLMs," per wikipedia).
- 44A: ___ Ingebrigtsen, track gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics (JAKOB) — come on, if you're gonna throw some obscure Olympian name at me, at least tell me what he got his medals for. "Track" doesn't cut it (he won the 1500 meters in 2020 and the 5000 meters in 2024)
- 39A: Verbalized shivers (BRRS) — has never and will never be a thing. The stupidest plural I've ever seen in my life. And it turns out this is, in fact, the first time I'm seeing it in my life: its last appearance in the NYTXW was 1967. They were much more desperate for fill back then. Something about the Cold War ... rationing ... I forget, but clearly times were bad.
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32 comments:
Medium-Challenging. A slog. Hated it.
* * _ _ _
Overwrites:
My 1D zero was ZIppo before it was ZILCH.
AIR buDS before PODS at 9D.
When I fly off the handle, I GO Bananas before I GO BonkERs before I GO BERSERK (3D).
I guessed JAson Ingebrigtsen before JAKOB at 44A.
My 65D pioneering channel was tNN before it was CNN.
WOEs:
SOFA as a casual gaming site at 40D (I get it now).
The aforementioned JAKOB Ingebrigtsen (44A).
ROMAN Roy at 61A, or any Succession-based clue. Didn't watch the show.
Honestly never realized what the theme was doing: the crosses took care of everything, and I didn't even notice the SIZING UP.
Caught onto the trick with LOBSTERS/MOBSTERS, but put the size letters into rebuses to allow for EXSPOUSES, not thinking of "xs" as "extra small." Typical Thursday blunder.
Solved it without understanding how “espouses” worked. Thank you.
No idea. EX-SPOUSES had me putting XS in as a rebus square. The next theme I got was the revealer, so I figured we'd be going up a size in each subsequent themer, although I wasn't sure how that would happen since the next sizes are all single letters. But then I put in ML for the ZILCH/MOBSTER crossing, figuring maybe I hadn't heard of a medium-large. It took me far too long to really understand the theme (AQUARIUM/s did it for me), but I found it more on the medium to challenging side because I started with a small size. Oy.
Two notes of note:
• This puzzle is a pangram.
• All sizes that can result from a “sizing up” are represented in the theme answers: S-M-L-XL.
Wonky theme - it works I guess but doesn’t kill. Had it with MOBSTERS right off the bat. Revealer is neat and apt.
American AQUARIUM
Rex summarizes the mixed fill nicely. I like BANDWAGON and GO BESERK. BARRAGE works but beyond that it’s pretty flat. The product placement is evident all throughout the grid.
All This USELESS Beauty
Pleasant enough Thursday morning solve.
Kurious ORANj
I believe the “casual gaming” hint is in opposition to “competitive gaming” which is typically done on desktop. Rather than formal
Rex nails it. Clever enough theme, unpleasant fill, awkward clueing. I’ve never encountered XS for “extra small,” so put me in the camp of folks who tripped up on that one.
For us Vermonters, there is nothing especially wintry about snow, since we also get it in spring and fall. “We get three seasons of BRRS,” said no one ever.
It’s hard to imagine a more flat-footed clue for SPEND than [pass, as time doing something].
I never got the sizing deal but solved it in 13 minutes well below my Thursday average. How can that not be easy or very easy?
Yeesh. This was really hard for me, mostly due to a lot of stuff I'm not familiar with:
JAKOB Ingebrigtsen
ROMAN Roy
QUORA
LLM
PROMPT as clued
AIRPODS
Sometimes you just live in a different world from the constructor.
Hey All !
Thanks to everyone for the Birthday wishes YesterComments!
Never did figure out the Theme on this one. Apparently the ole brain saw SIZING UP and thought of assessing a situation, and not literal SIZes. Silly brain.
Kind of a wacky Theme. Was looking for a Rebus first, but every answer was going in regularly, so abandoned that notion.
Never heard of an LLM. Wait, is it Life Like Model? How about Living Lies, Man. Not up on my AI, I do know it'll take over the world eventually, we'll all be controlled by the Big Computer in the Sky. It'll answer questions obtusely, like 42, e.g.
Uniclue:
Your tios derelict kid
USELESS NINO
Welp, hope y'all have a great Thursday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Deifinitely living under a rock because no idea what Claude is (yes i looked it up so now i get it). I usually love Thursdays but this one was also too AI etc. friendly for me
Anybody else out there slap in BLT before PBJ?
Well, the slippery cluing and slippery theme kept my brain involved and happy.
Slippery clues such as [They might have deposits] – what kind of deposits? The kind in banks? Deltas? Large purchases?
A slippery theme that kept me guessing as to what was going on until I filled in the revealer. Oh I tried getting it before that, but nada, ZILCH. That is what I hope for in a Thursday puzzle – a capital-R Riddle.
In my post-solve musing, thinking about sizes, it hit me that “petite” is embedded in the word “appetite”, and then I learned that “petite” is a category of sizes rather than a size itself and that there is even a "petite large" size. Hah! That brought the phrase "jumbo shrimp" to mind, and well, I can’t tell you how much my brain savors little diversions like this...
So, Killian, you gave me a Thursday-worthy outing, topped with some delightful digression, and I’m pleased as punch. Thank you for this!
zero stars for me, for small reasons( why is a PBJ crunchy? Hated BRRS almost as much as I hated LLM and its several related clues) and for a big one: the sizing up trick works differently in the different locations. For example, you could have entered L/M as a rebus for ZILCH/LOBSTERS, but not in PASTE/ESPOUSES (you are only "using" the upsizing in the across), then for MAXIMUM/LLM/AXLES the across requires removing a letter, and at AQUARIUM/MASKS we're back to the rebus style of the first iteration of it. This might have been forgivable if there were some additional extra special oomph to the theme (we had XS/S followed by S/M then M/L then L/XL), or if the fill were the creme de la creme of fill, but as it was it all felt brutally sloppy to me. Hated it, would not do again.
Definitely first thought BLT but also love crunchy peanut butter.
Got the NE fairly quickly but drew a blank on PARIAH even after getting the AH and had only a smattering of fill in the rest of the puzzle. So had to look up PARIAH and then worked through the rest without fully understanding the theme, so thanks Rex! I tend to get involved in a lot of DIY projects and find consulting with AI’s very useful. However, it pays to pose questions in different ways and to challenge their answers when they seem inconsistent in order to pull out the best solutions.
I never figured out the theme, but filled in the grid OK (except I put in an ML rebus, which I had to fix to get the music). And what Rex said about the cluing. I didn't know the runner, and wanted torrent before BARRAGE, which would have ruled out JAKOB, so I looked him up.
BARRAGE can lead to a bar fight.
Can you name a large city in Brazil, Marvin? RIOTED.
Mother: Be careful how you dress for the dance tonight, dear.
Daughter: Don't worry, I'm wearing a MAXI,MUM.
As you know, our TANNED and ORANGE President was recently spirited off of Air Force One in a catering container for security purposes. But what hasn't been reported is that during the brief period he was in the container he wolfed down two pounds of corned beef and a large jar of potato salad. The whole operation was a ploy to get Trump to the food ahead of the press.
This. It's video gaming lingo, and crossing FARM with that cluing I... I get it, but even so it was a slog to figure it out at the time. But yes, "casual" video gaming generally implies the living room/sofa, versus someone with a dedicated gaming station like a PC. It's a VERY vague line.
Once again the theme escaped me. Am I really the only one? I’ve been doing the NYT crosswords on a daily basis for fifteen years now, and I still can only discern the themes about 10% of the time, especially on Thursdays.
It’s not like I wasn’t patient or didn’t go with the flow. Today I wandered around the grid filling in section after section and only had six empty squares before I threw in the towel. I really feel like I’m a PARIAH and just not invited to the party on Thursdays. I don’t know if it’s a character flaw or if fate is punishing me for some infraction against nature that I have long since suppressed. Oh well, we all have our burdens to bear.
Btw - the fact that, long ago, someone got away with placing the SHIFT key next to the SHIFT LOCK key on a keyboard is proof that there is no God.
I solved as a themeless in 15 minutes on a day when I needed to kill time, which is rare for me on a Thursday so I liked it - except for LLM.
As far as being banned & unbanned from Quora, Rex, some of the people who post on that site are repulsively obsessed with 'toilet etiquette' so you brought a touch of class to it. Welcome back :)
Rare morning where I liked the puzzle LESS than Rex did. The clues were horrendous and the double/triple dip on AI related answers was so sad to see. Boring. Next.
XS absolutely is part of the standard size range -- in women's sizing.
Thanks Rex for explaining the theme!!!! I finished.... assumed that letters were going "UP" in the grid, since taking out the X from AXLES makes ALES, and adding it to ESPOUSES makes EX SPOUSES. Then I thought maybe we moved the "S" from SIZINGUP to replace the M to make AQUARIUS? And that M bounced up to replace the L in LOBSTERS? Anyway, it was a mess (in my head) and I didn't recognize we were dealing with Small, Medium, Large, XS, XL, etc. 13 minutes so pretty easy for Thursday. Thanks for an interesting puzzle, Killian!
I wanted to but the P was already in place. Crunchy peanut butter? Just another lame answer in this AI slop puzzle.
Great write-up, Rex.
People say they're not familiar with XS as a size, but there's a whole Australian rock band INXS. They were recently in the news when one of them binge ate himself up to a Small and was banned from the band. When he asked how he could get UNBANned, they said his diet could USELESS PIE.
One of the computer-related answers that hasn't been pointed out is the automated bit of software that reminds you to do your crunches, the ABBOT. It's why you see so many swole monks these days, in case you've been wondering.
My dog must be really cold because he always comes home full of BRRS.
I thought the theme was great and not difficult to understand once you saw the revealer. Thanks, Killian Olson.
I just started a Games subscription for the crossword. Today's clues full of AI, Claude, Apple, etc., were such a turn-off. Yesterday was also off-putting to me with the Google theme. I lost interest and clicked on 'reveal'. In recent years I just do the Sunday puzzle, trudging to library on Mondays to make a copy. If these kind of clues continue, I will go back to that.
Didn’t care for this one. I agree with the commenters who called it a slog and really not particularly interesting. Even with the explanation it seems like a stretch to get the theme. What is LLM for AI that’s been trained in text?
Yes, under a rock here too. Thought the answer might be something in French.
Didn't get the theme until I came here; still solved it pretty easily. Absolute garbage fill.
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